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CWGT4
The fourth season of the Crapwagon.com Grand Touring World Offline Series (CWGT4) - the second of the GTP era - began on April 15, 2005 in virtual Louisville, Kentucky with the prequalifying heats for the Dixieanna Winter Enduro. It concluded on May 15, 2005 at the Nurburgring Nordscheliefe with the Sunny 24h-rennen presented by Jolt Cola. Stalker won the title by a mere 18 points after a momentum-shifting victory at Riverside allowed her to pull away from TheStranger, who had taken the checkers at a shortened 24 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps (and thus led the standings in much of the early going). Mommymushbrain took the LeMans title and SimRacin40 lasted a full 24 hours at the Ring for the biggest win of his career. Top Stories Due to demands from long-time team owners denith, SimRacin40, and McB (the broadcast partner), CWGT founder TheStranger acquiesced to their requests for a points system, but wanted to continue to emphasize winning above all else. As a result, he created the 100-Point System (100-35-30-25-20-10-8-5-3-1) to make it clear that 2nd place was worth less than half of 1st. In lockstep with real life endurance racing points formats, he did make the concession of having 24-hour events go double points. As a direct parody of the infusion of Japanese corporate funding that befell both IMSA and later CART/Champcar (simultaneous with McB running Nissans for this season), race names all had excessive references to the Land of the Rising Sun, with the championsip being termed the "Nissan Sunny Cup." At midseason, the spat over massively powered Nissans at Nogaro led to internal friction between McB Deathmobile/NPD team boss McB and rookie FilipeMB who subsequently was banned from the circuit. Denith ended up winning the most races this season, but his vocal desire for a points-based championship would prove to haunt him at campaign's end... Season 4 Cartcanuck made a major switch in this season, going from the Jaguar/Goodyear configuration to a Nikon-sponsored Mazda with Michelin tires. Looking for a cure to what had ailed him through all 51 races of Season 3, Mr. Vengeance switched to Porsche and revived the Elmo livery that had adorned his successful years in the GTX era. The Elmo Experiments team also signed on formerly-independent drivers Sonic Enforcer (in a Cadillac) and Goobers (in a Mazda). CWRT replaced the retiring Caspar (who briefly served as Dan Belcher's crew chief before Harry Jekyll returned to mechanic duties) with the first ever British series participant, codename_47. McB Deathmobile Nissan offered a major expansion of its shop, bringing in the controversial rookie FilipeMB into the fold (after briefly emplying the lovable Aussie dsriggs who left in a huff following LeMans), along with former CWRT and Porsche driver Hosehead. Right before the French events, Paper jumped ship from Padremobile to Nissan. Another controversial rookie entered the fray with gonzo, whose team rights were hotly debated between Padremobile and Elmo Experiments. Towards the latter portions of the season, the Elmo Experiments paintshop started providing ad hoc livery work for Savage Media, setting the stage for CWGT5 merger-mania. In another transaction that reflected a new level of cooperation - Cohiba joined d.tuned (and thus returned to the series) upon a recommendation from CWRT's TheStranger. Dan Belcher had trouble getting much going in the early stages of Season 4, which led to him developing his first virtual alliance with Coca-Cola. He ran the sponsor on his original Moby Dick Restaurant livery, as well as borrowing one of McB's old Coca-Cola Porsches in an attempt to get back on track. CWGT4 Team Chart Teams are listed in order of when they first participated in the series. Sponsors are listed without specifying which events they ran on the car. Rookies are marked with '®'. Season 4 title-holder Stalker is marked in bold. *CREP was a subsidiary of CWRT until the Season 5 merger of CWRT and d.tuned *^Due to manufacturer technicality, Deathmobile/BooBoo were initially considered separate from McB Nissan NPD for CWGT4, but were under the same ownership *'Gonzo was entered into the series by Padremobile, though at one point his team was slated to be placed in with Elmo Experiments Events Season 4 thread Race length is noted in parentheses when not made obvious by the event name. Race Results Selected Race Summaries Round 2 - 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Boogie711 led much of the middle run - taking the point from hours 6 through 15 and dominating the field - only to suddenly falter, giving the lead to TheStranger (who had been up front at the two and three hour marks) in his #85 Bill Fillmaff Secret System Porsche. Approximately 180 minutes later, the Evil Wilke Productions scoring computer shut down due to a telecommunications error, giving TheStranger his first triumph at the Belgian circuit! Round 7 - Dover Downs After suffering a severe drought through Season 3, Mr. Vengeance returned to victory lane with some phenomenal late-race strategy, choosing not to pit while Dan Belcher, ABES, and others ducked in for service on Lap 171. With the help of heavy lapped traffic, the Elmo Experiments squad finally took a checkered flag in the prototype era. Round 10 - 24 Hours of Le Mans The first attempt at the 24 led to an abortive game crash while Dan Belcher was leading (and which McBvision chose not to count as an official race, to the extreme chagrin of TheStranger and everyone else on the Crapwagon.com Racing Team). Once a restart was held, the Sarthe classic was on its way. Two hours in, dsriggs actually led, clearly benefitting from life with Nissan at the time - but his luck did not last long, as mechanical issues and contact with BooBoo would plague him soon after. TheStranger got tapped by his own teammate codename_47, flipping in pit lane! Towards the four hour mark, leader Mr. Vengeance had a scare when Kingsnake2012 thwacked him as the Elmo Experiments Porsche was leaving pit lane, causing the Muppet car to fly over Mommymushbrain briefly. Shortly after, Meesh punted McB at Mulsanne. TheStranger would later initiate contact with McB at Mulsanne, coming out the worse for wear. At the five hour mark, it seemed mommymushbrain's run was basically over - 17th out of 17 cars left (and over 14 laps down!) with 76 laps complete. As anyone knows though, in CWGT, anything is possible... Fifth-hour leader Sparky would soon bow out due to car damage. At the seven-hour mark, almost all of the Porsches that entered that year's campaign were now out with incidents galore, a crushing blow for team owners Denith and TheStranger (who were still operating separate camps at the time). The leader at that juncture, Sonic Enforcer, found himself in trouble on the Mulsanne straight and had to get a tow to the pits...only to return to the point with some repairs. Travis would then find trouble at Mulsanne Corner and be the last Porsche to bow out, towards the eight-hour point of the event. Attrition had put mommymushbrain into the top 10 by then, though six laps down in 7th. Meesh was leading...but encountered the shrubbery at Mulsanne and suffered terminal damage. RobGuru, the new leader, would encounter troubles in Tertre Rouge towards the nine-hour mark. This finally propelled the Nyahmobile Sauber-Mercedes to the front! By the eleven-hour tally, Mommymushbrain held 2 laps over RobGuru and 6 over Padre (with mclark2112 sitting in pit lane, as he had for the last 10 hours and 45 minutes). Just shy of the 12 hour mark, Mommymushbrain was the final prototype remaining and officially the winner, though she hiccupped her way to six more hours of solo virtual driving before parking it in victory lane. Round 11 - Nogaro McB garnered the first ever win for Nissan's turbodiesel W10 in rather dominant - some would say, shady - fashion. Unfortunately, this caused serious conflict at NPD when teammate FilipeMB bitterly complained about getting lesser equipment from the Electramotive stable - a situation which would quickly come to a head, with his eventual permanent self-exile from the series. Full Series Results Award Winners Category:Seasons